Points of Purchase: Upward Mobility
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APEX Insight: From booking to post flight, the opportunities to buy while traveling are abundant. In Part Five of “Points of Purchase,” we look at ancillary revenue through passengers’ PEDs and the profits of a wireless in-flight entertainment system.
Airlines are finding creative ways to boost revenues by adopting an e-commerce approach to onboard retailing through wireless IFE (wIFE) platforms.
PaxLife launched its wIFE platform earlier this year. In addition to giving passengers access to entertainment, it delivers tailored advertising streamed directly to their personal devices. Premium video, native executions, branded-content channels, display and click-to-basket shopping are among the advertising opportunities available. “Airlines will get some very powerful insight around how passengers use their devices on board, what sort of things they watch, buy and interact with. It will undoubtedly mean a better relationship and, inevitably, stronger ancillary revenues,” says Tim Letheren, director and cofounder of Affable Digital, a mobile advertising and marketing consultancy.
In a recent survey of 700 flyers, PaxLife found that 73 percent of flyers said they would be receptive to advertising.
PaxLife’s airline-agnostic app Cloud10 allows the company to build a more long-term relationship with its users and harvest more relevant data. “What we have found is that passengers welcome advertising if it is relevant to them, and they understand the value exchange – this is how the web works, after all,” says Letheren, who worked with PaxLife. “On the opposite side of the fence, the media industry loves the in-flight audience, but finds it difficult in this digital age to justify spending in a world where there are few metrics and no chances to optimize.”
Immfly similarly developed its wIFE media based on its belief that enriching a passenger’s journey can go hand in hand with opening up revenue opportunities. “Airlines are really keen to become more complete travel brands,” says Sara Ollé, Immfly’s marketing and communications manager. “And wireless platforms are helping to continue the passenger experience beyond the aircraft.”
“Airlines are really keen to become more complete travel brands.” €” Sara Ollé, Immfly
The wIFE platform of the Barcelona-based company is used by Iberia Express under its Club Express Onboard brand. Immfly’s platform not only lets passengers download in-flight city guides, it also uses destination-specific promotions to encourage passengers to pre-book activities and airport transfer services in over 50 destinations during their flight, and stores tickets to their mobile devices. Product trials with the airline showed that on flights averaging two hours, passengers used the service for about 40 minutes.
Arconics, Media inMotion, Piksel join a growing number of companies that are betting on improved advertising platforms via wIFE.
“Upward Mobility” was originally published in the multipart feature, “Points of Purchase,” in the October/November issue of APEX Experience magazine.